MEDIA POLITICS REVIEW

MEDIA POLITICS REVIEW

Journalism on political issues in the United States and particularly relating to the presidential popularity campaigns has undergone radical changes from the late 1960s. I had assumed that media politics would have gradually changed with the changing times and more, especially with the increasing advocacy for media freedom, fairness, and objectivity. Steven Clayman, in his research on the rise of aggressive presidential news after 1968, exhaustively explains the factors that have influenced the trend on the conduct of journalism after the war.

Clayman, in his literary work, states how the media reports in varied proportions, both negative and positive news about the elected presidents. His analysis of the trend and the scope of media reporting strongly suggest that changes which journalism has undergone over the years are fundamental. Clayman identifies a variety of factors that impact media trends on reporting, and they are; the presidential level characteristics, politics, and its environment and the economic environment. Clayman argues that the historical incidences and political instability experienced gave rise to a change in the norms of journalism.

Further to his argument on press coverage of political news is that disagreement among the political leaders causes a change in the news coverage patterns. The level of divisions seen in party affiliations, which was experienced in Congress, according to Cayman, has contributed to the change in reporting presidential news. Secondly, the economic environment, as analyzed by Cayman, just like political forces, has influenced the trends in journalism reporting. From the findings, journalists constantly monitor the performance of a president concerning how the economy is performing. Cayman continues to explain how the change in trend in media reporting can be attributed to a friendly or adversarial relationship that the president has with the press. These different factors ranging from the dynamic character of the presidents in power to the economic and political environment are responsible for the tendency towards more aggressive journalism over the years.

The theories used by Cayman in his explanation of changes in the trend of media journalism is closely related to the fact that United States presidents have always used the media as a tool to convey their policies to the citizens as outlined in the book ‘Media Politics.’ According to Shanto, the main objective of going public is to cultivate public approval. When the public backs the president, his credibility is enhanced and thus limiting any opposition from the members of the Congress. The article examines a substantial amount of presidential news conferences and is focused on the comparison of multiple explanations on politics and controlling factors that are not political.

The research assumes that the questioning which is done on the news conferences aids in the identification of the White House press way of dealing with the press. News conference enables direct meeting between the elite group members of the press and the president and the conference is broadcast live and thus receive sufficient coverage. The methods applied in doing the research are database and sampling methods, Measures of Aggressive Questioning, Measures of political context, Contextual Covariates, Graphical Comparison of Temporal Trends in Political Context, Statistical Models of Time Trends in Aggressive Questioning.

After critically analyzing Cayman’s research on the factors responsible for the presidential coverage trend, the economic environment was one of the s key factors that affected the trend after 1968. The demonstration of the relationship between Cayman’s article and Berlemann’s survey on ‘The Economic Determinants of US Presidential Approval’ is made more explicit when Berlemann embarks on a study to establish how the economic performance of the country influences the popularity of the president. The study indicates that economic factors such as unemployment and inflation significantly affect presidential popularity more than other factors. Berlemann, through his research, identifies inconsistencies in the past studies on how economic variables affect presidential politics and seeks to find out how economic factors are essential in the determination of the president’s popularity. The research paper adequately reviews the empirical studies on popularity variables and elaborates on economic factors affecting the popularity of the president.

Berlemann identifies that inflation in the country and unemployment are the main variables that affect the popularity of a president. The factors that influence popularity are low employment, inflation, and budget deficits. The survey explains how various mathematical techniques and models are used to determine the percentage in which various economic variables affect the popularity of the United States president. Therefore, the possibility of voters reacting disproportionately to changes in unemployment cannot be ignored.

The strong argument by Berlemann and supported by his literature review fully agree with Shanto’s work on media politics. The symmetry of ideas comes out when a president develops policies that are geared towards excellent economic performance and which is then communicated through the media. According to the findings going public has become an important aspect of the United States’ presidential leadership. A research was done by Benny Geys in his article on ‘Wars, Presidents, And Popularity’ adds to the literature on the financial cost of war and contributes significantly to the subject of leadership and media politics.

The central theme of the presidential popularity and factors that affect incumbent popularity is well articulated in the three articles. Geys indicates that through research, an incumbent’s popularity will be adversely affected by a report on war casualties. According to his study, the cost associated with directly influences the popularity of the current president in the United States. The argument advanced by Gey’s article states that war affects other parts of the economy, and they include diminishing cultural heritage, disruption of trade, and damaging environment. In his article, Geys explores the financial costs of war, which causes a financial burden, which attracts public attention and thus can be used for evaluating a leader.

The journal closely links public awareness and the financial cost of the war, which is in tandem with Shanto’s textbook’s on media politics. Media elites take a significant amount of time to discuss the cost of engaging in war. According to Gey’s piece of work, most Americans do not have full knowledge of the number of casualties caused by war, even though the information is available for the public. The theory further explains how fiscal policy influences the popularity of a leader and that people do not like taxes and deficits.

The survey done by Geys strongly shows that prosperity and peace mainly determine the voter’s decision on the leaders they should vote. The wealth of a nation is quantified via indicators of the economy, such as Gross Domestic Product, inflation, and unemployment. In contrast, war or peace is measured through casualties sustained in a military conflict. Studies done by the author of this journal on the political cost of war observes that the price of war is high and, therefore, can be publicly discerned. The available data, according to the theories possible, shows that warfare causes substantial negative consequences on the president’s popularity.

The exciting part of the relationship between these articles is the fact that all focus on the factors that affect leadership and particularly presidential politics, and how media will report on them. Having reviewed the book by Shanto Lyengar on Media Politics, I’m convinced that for successful political leadership, public image is very important. The theories that detail the effect of media reporting from the three articles under review consolidates and shows a strong relationship with the study on this topic. Chapter nine of the book ‘Media Politics’ explains how it is vital for a leader to manage media coverage and even further use it for his popularity advantage. The chapter expertly uses examples of the United States presidents who used the media to govern. According to the book, media has always been used by leaders as a useful tool to communicate government policies and to win public trust.

An explanation on the issue of ‘Going public’ public, according to the author, has been preferred over the method of bargaining. A president who conveys his policies to people can quickly get support from Congress, primarily if the public supports the idea. An equally important issue about the idea of passing information to the public is the ability to manage the media reports. The chapter exhaustively discusses the reasons why public communication is essential and the primary forms of presidential communication and the possible gains arising from such communication. Due to the consistent application of the appropriate methodology and reliable theoretical framework used, I fully recommend these articles to be used for reference in media and political studies and other spheres of the political work.